BJJ Poll: Have You Ever Used Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in a Real-life Self-Defense Situation?

Above all, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art designed for self-defense. How many of us have actually had to put our BJJ skills to use in such a situation? I am really interested to learn more about this.

And make sure you tell us your story in the comments section for this post. Was it a bar fight? A road rage incident? Were you acting in your own defense or protecting someone else? Was BJJ effective for you? Were there any charges pressed? Feel free to also leave us a quick voicemail about your experience by calling 877-247-4662 and we may include it in an upcoming episode of The FightWorks Podcast.

I do not know why I did not think of this before as a poll! Many thanks to Larry for the idea!

I can’t take that moral high road like Rowdy.
I got in a fight with three people.
One of them had started to rush me and take a swing. To defend myself, I punched him in the face, took his back and choked him out.
His two friends tried to kick me in the head. But I kept rolling their friend over to use him as a shield until the cops got there.
Afterwards, a hot Irish girl bought me a shot of whiskey to numb the pain.

In college I was attacked at a bar for glaring at a guy after we accidentally spilled our drinks on each other. I was only a white belt with about 6 months of training. It was an uphill battle but eventually I caught him in an armbar. I remember putting it on as hard as I could and being surprised that I couldn’t get his arm to bend past 180, like I expected it to. But he started howling when I kept cranking on it so I had a chance to get up and flee from his now vengeful friends who had let him to his own methods because I was so scrawny and until the very end it looked like he was going to win. Really, it was way more terrifying than exciting or fun, but I am glad it happened because it made me feel like I had earned my stripes, so to speak.

I have been in 6 fights before jiu jitsu. I have been training very rigorusly for 9 months and I am an Relson Gracie blue belt. I feel like ju jitsu makes an indavidual less violent. Anyone who seriously practices a martial art has a strong aura of confidence and is dedicated in such a way that they dont put themselves in bad situations, like a bar.

Not really a fight but I had an altercation with my younger brother, who was being disrespectful to our elderly father with his speech and some minor violence. Both my father and brother live in a city 1200 miles away from me. My brother came back out to California (where they resided prior to moving 1200 miles away) to live with some friends. He wanted a ride from me to where his friends lived I told him in a forceful way that he needed to find a job and to never treat our father in the manner in which he had been treating him. He was in his 20s and I was 30s. Since the age difference between us is over 10 years we did not grow up together and never fought as brothers do growing up. Well, after I told him these things he flipped me the bird and started walking away. I said “WHAT????!” and ran towards him and got his back and sat down, he ended up sitting right in front of me with his back facing me with my arm around his neck. I never struck him, I just got a good position behind him. He said “OK!” and I let him go and told him in a normal low conversation voice since his ear was right there in front of my mouth , to respect our father and never be violent with his dad or mother. He said OK and we stood up and he hugged me and said he was sorry. Since I never threw a punch, he had no hard feelings towards me and we are closer than before.